More Elderly Reported Dying in Care Homes

The percentage of elderly Americans dying in nursing homes rose sharply during the 1980s as hospitals began discharging terminally ill patients to save money, a new study concludes. The report largely attributed the change to Medicare rules that encourage hospitals to release elderly patients as quickly as possible.

However, it said that other cost-cutting pressures, including the rise of health maintenance organizations, may also have contributed, according to the study in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The study’s authors said that sending dying people to nursing homes rather than keeping them in hospitals is not necessarily a bad trend.

Medicare’s new payment system began in 1983. Instead of covering patients’ actual expenses, the program pays hospitals flat fees in advance for each patient. Hospitals get the same amount for each patient with a specific disease, regardless of whether the patient stays in the hospital for a day or a month.